Another Day in the Life

Today was fairly calm, all things considered... We went out to clinic in Nueva Santa Catarina (the one with the wooden Church and cardboard walls, remember?!), and had a very slow clinic there. Apparently, we're already in the time of year when people start not showing up for clinic much, but that's okay since most of our chronic patients there made it. We were able to give them meds to last them until we get back out there in mid-January. Unless you're one of those crazy Internists or FP's that really gets a kick out of treating diabetes, there was nothing terribly interesting there today. (No offense to the FP's and Internist friends out there... I'm sure you find what Heidi does as an OB/Gyn to be generally disgusting!;-))

We did make it back in time to go see little baby Lesly in the hospital. (She's the 5-month old Down's Syndrome baby we've been writing about) Frankly, she looks terrible. The family is frustrated that she is not gaining any weight and not eating (the hospital took the feeding tube out over the weekend, for whatever reason...), and they are thinking about just taking her home. We prayed with them for wisdom in that decision and for God's will in little Lesly's life, and they did decide to stay for now. We'll keep you posted, but we're really afraid that this will be a case of "too little, too late..." She looks sick enough that she may not make it through tonight, so please pray for her family.

One thing that we are trying to do to make a better difference in little lives like these is to encourage moms to bring their babies in for "well-baby exams" after they are born. This is not a concept that has taken hold here. (Remember, most moms don't receive pre-natal care, either... Doctors are only for when you are sick for the most part!) A little bit of education could go a long way towards preventing situations as grave as Lesly's. The problem is, basically, if breastfeeding doesn't work to provide nutrition for a baby here (mom doesn't have a good milk supply for various reasons, or baby doesn't have the strength to suck well because of cleft palate issues or muscle tone issues like with Down's syndrome, for example...), the families just do NOT know what to do! There are no pediatricians involved, and all the women they can turn to for advice all breastfed! So there is no knowledge about formula feeding, essentially.

We in America can not really comprehend the fact that they don't understand that they need to feed a baby formula essentially as often as they would breastfeed (We've often heard of them feeding a newborn just 3 times a day, when they eat their meals!)-- But remember, THAT is the depth of the lack of education problem that we are dealing with. So please pray that we can meet some success in encouraging moms to bring their babies in early for evaluation and education.

Tomorrow Heidi will go operate with Dr. Hoak, and Matt will probably hang out here and field phone calls and knocks on the door... As well as work around the house, which we haven't had much time for lately. Hopefully this next attempt at going our separate ways for the day won't be quite as "adventurous" as the last one... ;-)